Ex-Flamengo chief reveals Vasco offers, warns of crisis: “Passion won out”

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Papo na Colina

·5 May 2026

Ex-Flamengo chief reveals Vasco offers, warns of crisis: “Passion won out”

Executive Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, former president of Flamengo, confirmed that he was recently approached to take on leadership roles at major Brazilian football clubs. During an interview this week, the executive publicly revealed that he was contacted by presidential candidates from Corinthians and Vasco to take over the corporate department as CEO. Those isolated talks took place during the internal election periods of both traditional century-old institutions.

The administrator was quick to clarify that the invitations did not come officially from the boards running the teams at those specific times. The professional inquiry was initiated directly by opposition leaders trying to build strong tickets to win the election. The main goal of those political figures was to bring in a name with major market weight to fix the internal financial collapse and replicate the success achieved at Gávea.

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Bandeira de Mello explains reasons for turning down Vasco

While explaining his definitive refusal to join the clubs’ corporate projects, the former president said that he fully believes in the ethics and professionalism of current sports executives. The executive also made a point of recalling that he had several rival supporters on his own management team in the past. However, he detailed his irreversible personal position on the delicate institutional issue in a direct statement to the media:

“It’s true, but I can talk about it because they were public inquiries. They were presidential candidates from Vasco and Corinthians who approached me to ask whether I would like to take on the CEO role. I have nothing against a Flamengo supporter working for a rival, but in my particular case, I think passion speaks louder. I understand people’s professional integrity, but in my case it is very difficult to take on a leadership role at a club that is a direct rival.”

Executive addresses debt and assesses adoption of SAFs

In addition to commenting on the busy behind-the-scenes of football, the experienced executive gave a frank overview of the serious economic crisis affecting many of the country’s biggest clubs. Openly citing the difficult financial situation inherited by Vasco, the accounting specialist stressed that the drastic legal shift to a Football Corporation does not immediately erase multimillion-dollar holes in the books and requires a great deal of austerity.

He stressed that heavily indebted clubs need to adopt absolute fiscal discipline before they can compete for major titles again, regardless of the modern corporate format. The executive warned Vasco fans and supporters of other Brazilian associations that there is no credit recovery without strong structural planning:

“From the moment the situation becomes difficult, they turn to the SAF, and then each one has its own story. I don’t think there’s any magic, but there’s also no solution without sacrifice.”

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.